For seasoned players grown disaffected: An invitation to quit.

[tanerb]

The game will not attract a lot of new players. No MMO does after a while. I think this is where you are wrong. The fact is other than a minority all you have is seasoned players. But do not mistaken, not all of them are same. So, generalization is also not correct. Edited May 21, 2013 by tanerb

[renoxodus]

 

Group finder is like an escort service - lots of people looking for a payday who don't want to cuddle.

 

Stealing this!

[Tatanka]

Regardless of whether you are a subscriber, F2Per, a casual, a hard core, a PVPer, or an RPer, if you are not enjoying a game, why make yourself and those around you miserable? Go find something else to enjoy. Life is too short to voluntarily spend time doing stuff that you are not enjoying.

 

What is so hard about this concept to folks?

[Icebergy]

Regardless of whether you are a subscriber, F2Per, a casual, a hard core, a PVPer, or an RPer, if you are not enjoying a game, why make yourself and those around you miserable? Go find something else to enjoy. Life is too short to voluntarily spend time doing stuff that you are not enjoying.

 

What is so hard about this concept to folks?

 

What if its the other players that are making you miserable?

[Arkerus]

I don't think there is any harm is completion junkies quitting now and coming back later. If you sit in front of this game 4-8 hours a day you'll never be placated.

[Hebruixe]

Awesome post. Very well reasoned and articulated. I wish I had been the person one say all this!

 

If you have a WoW subscription please repost on the WoW forums. They need to hear this message too.

 

I totally agree with you... the reason people are so impatient, rude, elitist, and arrogant is because they are burned out. Burned out and frustrated with the game. And they take it out on new players.

 

Thanks again for this post. I feel vindicated.

[comebui]

I agree with the OP. In fact I am here since beta and have one 55 lvl character and 7 toon all under 30.

But, I have friends who really rushes through and I enjoy their company as well. Without these people, we couldn't have a healthy game economy. They become the geeks and they do help you out. I guess We need both group of players to balance everything.

Think about it if everyone is as slow as I am ... Bioware probably didn't need to do any Content update for next 3 years!!!:p

[JimG]

Many long-time players at least appear to be disaffected with the game.

Keep in mind that 100 threads could be started by long-time players claiming to be disaffected with the game and, while that would seem a large amount of players by result of 100 threads flooding the forums, that's still only 100 players out of hundreds of thousands of players.

[MSchuyler]

*gulp* So... much... TEXT...

 

This isn't Sesame Street where you get your sound bite in ten seconds or less. It's an essay, with paragraphs--not a wall. If Twitter is all you can concentrate on, go there.

[tiennen]

What you seem to be ignoring is how much these players also add to the game.

 

While you're content watching your little videos in your FP and leveling your alt a level a week, these "hardcore" players are blasting through the Ops, crafting the new items, flooding the GTN with new resources, posting video walkthroughs of different tasks, finding the impossible to reach +10 datacron on Makeb, learning new recipes from Rep vendors, running the newest Ops, teaching other groups how to run the newest Ops so that they may one day take you.

 

Where you only see negatives, I see a group of players who contribute a LOT more than they ask for in return.

 

This is what the OP fails to realize. The veterans that have been around for a long while are the backbone of the game.

[Tatanka]

What if its the other players that are making you miserable?

It's up to you to determine just how much misery you wish to immerse yourself in.

 

In a previous game, the RP server I was on had a population that made a large portion of players miserable. Fortunately, we could all pick and transfer to another server. Not so lucky here... heh.

[Trexmix]

I found it to be a well-written and interesting post, and I agree with the viewpoint expressed.

 

Some people just have OCEANS of free time available for any number of legit and less-legit reasons. And when you can devote yourself 6 -10 hours or more every day for months or years on end, you’re going to know that subject inside and out and eventually pick it apart at the seams – anything gets boring when you contribute that much of your life to it.

 

Consider this; most if not all entertainment is an escape from reality. For a time, your imagination is augmented and shaped by whatever stimulus medium you enjoy and (when playing mmo’s for instance) you can perceive yourself or a version of yourself as the main character in the story. Or alternatively you are the director in your own interactive movie subplot and your characters are all from this internal story you create as you go. Either way, when you play it’s like being involved in and contributing to this other world. At least that’s the idea.

 

When you read a good book you create a sort of mental movie which plays similarly to dreams and memories, the scenery and characters are constructed by your imagination’s rendering of whatever description you’re reading. Essentially this too is an escape. Not that reading good fiction novels, watching movies, or playing mmo’s means you reject reality - just that when we partake in these kinds of entertainment your imagination takes a much larger role for a time, and we’re no longer explicitly living in the immediate now.

 

The point is, when you live your life this way and devote a huge portion of time to something that is not meant to sustain a person’s imagination for so long (or is meant to, but done so in a contrived or arbitrary way ie: excessive grinding) eventually you're left with a bitter and unfulfilled person who also has a shield in the form of an anonymous avatar to hide behind. The toxic nature of these people infects others and then creates a sort of negative feedback loop which continues to reinforce toxic behavior as the norm and something that is acceptable.

 

The suggestion to simply leave is actually the most positive and low-impact suggestion one could offer for such a situation.

 

edit: Put another way/TLDR - if you're ok with an mmo being a sort of life-substitute, you're gonna have a bad time, and sooner or later treat others poorly as a result.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Trexmix

[jedip_enguin]

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/154/912/berneydidnotread.gif?1318992465

[Hebruixe]

(stated above) "eventually you're left with a bitter and unfulfilled person who also has a shield in the form of an anonymous avatar to hide behind. The toxic nature of these people infects others and then creates a sort of negative feedback loop which continues to reinforce toxic behavior"

 

I find this comment insightful (if unpleasant) and tend to agree with it.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Hebruixe
clarification

[CosmicKat]

So the latest excuse for what ails TOR is... bad vibes?

[jedimasterjac]

I don't plan on quitting. I've followed this game since around 09, and I won't stop anytime soon. The game keeps getting better (though many refuse to admit it)... And I have faith in it for the long run.

[Blackardin]

*gulp* So... much... TEXT...

 

 

....but in this case, well versed, lucid, and to the point at hand, text.

 

Well said OP. An absolute Truism.

[Blackardin]

I don't plan on quitting. I've followed this game since around 09, and I won't stop anytime soon. The game keeps getting better (though many refuse to admit it)... And I have faith in it for the long run.

 

You are not the droid he is looking for. You are like me, still enjoy the content and perhaps have not leveled 12 sith yet. This game has a lot of life left in it from my standpoint, and many others. He is speaking to those that were level 50 the first week and posting on the boards that the game sucked because there was not enough end game content. Well the latest version of them.

 

The first mistake that I could see a gaming company make is to change course from the start up plan to rush some additional content to for that group, and on down the hill does the snowball role....

[Hockaday]

Oh look, another forum post making me hate the player base more.

 

Sounds like it's the OP who needs to quit, as he is unhappy in swtor.

[LordArtemis]

Ok, if I could comment.

 

First, I'd like to point out that I don't like the idea of anyone leaving the game for any reason. I think it's best to promote folks remaining as players.

 

That said, I can see the OP's point. Some folks play a game in a more casual fashion, treating it more like a game, whereas others play in a more concerted professional manner, as efficiently as possible.

 

That is how they have fun.

 

When you combine the two, it's like having a party at work where one group of folks want to listen to country, another group wants to listen to rap. In that situation it is impossible to please everyone, and if you please one group you will likely upset another.

 

In this case the OP is speaking to what it is like for a casual player to play with a hardcore player (generalized of course for brevity). Unfortunately I believe there is no way to rectify this problem. Eventually even casuals will reach end game and perhaps become one of those players that uses the spacebar.

 

I find myself using the spacebar on certain dialog sets that seem a bit too verbose.

 

One way I suggested helping this situation was to include a "story mode" toggle next to your name in the Group Finder tool to show folks you intend to view the entire dialog set...this way they choose to group with you or not based on that selection.

 

At any rate, though the problem has some validity IMO I fail to see anything comprehensive, aside from drastically increasing social points and adding more desireable social items to the vendors that can be done to improve the situation.

[idnewton]

Ok, if I could comment.

I'm going to guess you can, considering you did

 

 

This thread is hillarious. Do you actually posess such a void of confidence you feel the urge to ask people to agree with you on a forum? Pathetic. I wonder if/when this thread will be shut down.

Edited May 22, 2013 by idnewton

[t_euclidus]

(stated above) "eventually you're left with a bitter and unfulfilled person who also has a shield in the form of an anonymous avatar to hide behind. The toxic nature of these people infects others and then creates a sort of negative feedback loop which continues to reinforce toxic behavior"

 

I find this comment insightful (if unpleasant) and tend to agree with it.

^This.

 

I agree both with the original commenter and the comment commentary. It's insightful, and pretty much true, and also unpleasant.

 

What it comes down to is that some of us are good players but not professional players. We try not to piss off those who play this game like it's their job, and in turn we try not to stomp on the newer players who haven't achieved more than a modicum of competence yet, usually due to not having had time to practice for years.

 

The Star Wars IP is a sweeping, global fandom. People from all walks of life want to participate, from elderly retirees with slow reflexes, poor eyesight, and no previous MMO experience to 10 year olds who've never played a computer game before and don't follow instructions well to 30-somethings who've been playing games since the late 70s. Some are a spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent, or buddy of someone and just playing to spend time with a gamer who prefers SWTOR to other forms of hanging out. And we're all in this together, every last one of us.

 

Veteran, hardcore, 'pro' players are naturally disaffected at this point. They're passionate about this game, and this game isn't giving them much to work with. Think about it like this...

 

They entered a contract with SWTOR not unlike a marriage vow. They desired it. They waited for it. They haunted these forums for years waiting for the day SWTOR would be theirs. When they finally had SWTOR, they set out to win it, to master it, to learn its every secret, to explore its every hidden place. They were in love with SWTOR, passionate about it, full of fire and drive that carried them to the endgame in record time. They did this because SWTOR was their beloved, and they wished to possess it completely.

 

And then SWTOR let them down. Disappointed them. Didn't put in the effort. Didn't even try to fulfill their needs. And in the meantime, they watched SWTOR make it easier and easier for others to possess and explore it, to know it as intimately as they did, to win it as completely. And that devalued some of their experience. It made them ache and grew bitterness inside them no matter how badly they wished otherwise.

 

They have the same brittle hope for the future of SWTOR that an estranged spouse might have for the future of their marriage. It's going to take a lot of work, and they can only do part of it. Their anger, their b*tching on the forums, that's not really about the new players. It's about their beloved SWTOR. It's about trying desperately to shout loud enough that SWTOR listens and repays their devotion in kind.

 

And, understanding that as I do, I'm torn about the OP. If SWTOR makes you miserable more often than it makes you happy... If your frustration overwhelms your moments of excitement... Do yourself a favor and take a break til SWTOR reciprocates your dedication. Don't do the OP a favor. Don't do the new players a favor. Do YOURSELF the honor of respecting your own time and energy enough not to throw it away on something that refuses to satisfy you.

 

Sometimes love isn't enough. It'd be nice if it was, but when it's not, you have a tough choice to make. Personally, I respect those who keep fighting it out and hoping for a change. I read their threads and weather their rage when it coincides with mine and gives me a sense of validation. I skip their threads or /ignore when it brings me down.

 

 

 

TL;DR: Maybe SWTOR isn't that into you. If that crushes your soul, save yourself the heartache and take a break. If you're strong enough to keep fighting and still hold your head up, my hat's off to you. Shine on, you crazy diamond.

[islander]

There isn't a shred of common sense in it. It's a bitter rant fluffed up to not look like one.

 

This.

[Master-Nala]

There isn't a shred of common sense in it. It's a bitter rant fluffed up to not look like one.

 

Oh yes, there is quite a bit of sense in it. Sadly, it's not so common. I suspect it touches a little too close to home for you. All the OP is stating is that people who are so burnt out on the game that they feel the need to be negative and try and bully others to speed through the content should just move on.

 

Nothing ranting about saying that people who no longer like a product should stop using it.

[Master-Nala]

So the latest excuse for what ails TOR is... bad vibes?

 

Why are you still paying for something you clearly dislike so much?